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4.04.2016

I decided my last blog post couldn't be about a dead dog, so ta-da! Nearly four months later, here's the tale of our most "recent" addition.

Roger Ian surprised us and entered the world two weeks early, on Tues., March 8th, at 7:10am.

Monday night, after a delicious girls' night out with my cousin Jen, I was feeling quite restless. I'd been having Braxton-Hicks for a couple days and was starting to sense that this kid might come early. Around 9:30, I said to Doug, "You might wanna throw some things in a duffle... just in case." He probably thought I was crazy.

Around midnight, I woke up to a cramp that felt very similar to what I had with Willa and immediately thought "this is it." I tried to go back to sleep but found myself lying there waiting for another contraction. Sure enough, about 10 minutes later, there was another. At 1:30am, my contractions were around 8 minutes apart so I woke Doug up and said, "I think we're having a baby today."

I told Doug to go back to sleep and got in the shower. After, I puttered about - gathering things and preparing stuff for my parents to watch Bo and Willa. Emily had stayed over at our house, so around 3:30am I woke her up to let her know we'd be leaving for the hospital in a bit - she was on child duty until my mom arrived.

By 4am, my contractions were around 3-4 minutes apart, and I was starting to feel like we should head to the hospital. Doug remembered that the car was almost out of gas, so he drove down the road to the gas station. While he was gone, I had a handful of contractions under 3 minutes apart and the intensity had picked up, so when he got back, I was like, time to go.

Once we were in the car, my contractions slowed way, way down - like 5-8 minutes apart. I told Doug we should turn around because they probably wouldn't admit us. He insisted that since we were already driving, we should just see what they had to say at the hospital.

Once I got out of the car and started walking, my contractions started to come more quickly again. We got into triage and I braced myself for news of dilation - I remember thinking "oh please let me be at least 3 inches!" The midwife smiled and said, "We're at 7!" I was floored - and SO excited to be that far along!

We got up to the room around 6am, and I got right into the tub. Around 7am, my nurse and midwife were going off duty, so they both stopped by to wish me good luck. The nurse said she'd be back with her replacement to introduce us and to let her know in the meantime if we needed anything. Pretty much as soon as she walked out of the room, I suddenly had the urge to push. Since I had an epidural with Willa, I hadn't experienced that fully - but whoa. At first I was like "Yikes, I think I might need to push...?" and then with the next contraction, I was like, "I NEED TO PUSH."

Johnny Cash, a word, if I may? You know nothing of the "ring of fire". Sweet mercy. At any rate, I pushed for maybe 5 minutes and voila - a baby boy!!

6 lb, 6 oz - 21.5 inches

So teeny! He's chunked up a bit since then...

Isn't he just delectable?!

So life with 3 kiddos has been an adjustment, to offer a trite overstatement. We are all learning and hanging on for dear life and trying to love the good & the bad. I sure love this little pack to pieces.

And now little bloggity blog, I bid you adieu, at least until the next child arrives.